Texas man Frank Ahlgren sentenced to two years for crypto tax evasion, ordered to pay $1M restitution to the U.S.
Frank Richard Ahlgren III, an early Bitcoin investor from Austin, Texas, has been sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion. Ahlgren filed false tax returns from 2017 to 2019, underreporting gains from selling over $4 million worth of Bitcoin. These actions resulted in a tax loss of over $1 million. This is the first criminal tax fraud case that was focused on cryptocurrencies.
According to the statement of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ahlgren began his Bitcoin spree in 2011 when he bought the digital money. He purchased approximately 1,366 bitcoins in 2015 through Coinbase. He then sold about 640 bitcoins in October 2017 for $3.7 million. Ahlgren was able to use the money to purchase a house in Park City, Utah. However, in the year Ahlgren prepared to file his 2017 tax return, he misrepresented his gains by claiming that he bought the Bitcoins at a higher price, hence under-declaring capital gains.
Ahlgren Ordered to Pay $1M in Restitution for Crypto Tax Evasion
From 2018-2019, Ahlgren sold more Bitcoins and in the process generated more than $650,000. He did not include these sales in his tax returns. To mask such transactions Ahlgren employed layering, a process of transferring the bitcoins through several wallets and by employing mixers which are designed to obscure the details of the Bitcoin transaction. Ahlgren tried to cover up these actions and this was the cause of his downfall.
Stuart M. Goldberg the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Tax but Ahlgren had a pattern of avoiding taxes and covering up his tracks. The IRS Criminal Investigation Unit, headed by its current Acting Special Agent in Charge Lucy Tan has been monitoring Ahlgren’s activities and apprehending him. Tan clarified that the flow of cryptocurrencies is not as anonymous as people often imagine them to be.
Besides the prison term, Ahlgren has been sentenced to pay a total of $1,095,031 in restitution to the U.S. government. The judge will also grant him probation for a period of one year after he finishes serving his prison term. This case provides a great lesson on what happens when one decides to play the tax man by avoiding paying taxes, especially in the world of cryptocurrency. The Justice Department and IRS-Criminal Investigation have also proved that nobody is untouchable, even those involved in the Bitcoins business.
